More than 80% of children in rural communities are malnourished. Inadequate diet supplement, education and livelihood support options are some of the main challenges in providing balance diet to children. The project will support about 1500 children in Manyu division, Cameroon suffering from malnutrition by training and supporting 500 women on how to ensure nutritive diets for children well-being.

Problem Description

Smallholder Farming

Malnutrition is a threat to children and pregnant women worldwide (UNICEF 2016). In Manyu division south west region Cameroon, more than 80% of pregnant women and children are malnourished. Malnutrition accounted for high infant mortality rate and related health issues.Our field study revealed that more than 95% of local food is composed of starch. Malnutrition in our project area is limited by awareness, entrepreneurship skills and knowledge on home gardening as a means to sustain protein-rich food.

What will the project do to solve the problem?

The project primary target is 500 women, reaching 500 householdsand 1500 children.Home gardening training will be given through workshops and will focus on vegetables and legumes crops and on poultry and piggery farming. Education on healthy diet compositions will be given through seminars and entrepreneurship training in food processing, preservation will be given through workshops.

Main objective

To improve on the health of pregnant women and children through diet education and technical supports

Specific objectives

To raise awareness among women on appropriate diet for pregnant women and infants.

To train 500 women on home gardening and entrepreneurship skills

To support 500 women on inputs and capital to engage in home gardening and intensive farming

Long term impact

The project will go a long way to reduce malnutrition across 10 communities in the project area by at least 10%. It will ensure long term food security and improve the health situation of about 1500 children and about 5000 secondary beneficiaries. Entrepreneurship skills obtained will increase household income and thus standard of living. The local communal nature of the beneficiary communities will ensure the replication effect of the project and women beyond the primary circle to also benefit.

Implementation strategies and plan

The project will kick off with a meeting involving all stakeholders (the local authorities, women and women groups’ in manyu and other NGOs) in the project area. This meeting will raise awareness on the important of the project and enable effective collaboration of all local actors. Awareness raising about the project will also be carry out through the local radio and by the use of posters, flyers and local meeting groups. awareness raising will focus mainly on the important of diet on health and the means and strategies for improving and sustaining diet intake in poor households

The awareness raising will be followed by a one week door to door sensitization. Sensitization will focus on the important and strategies of sustaining a balance diet with focus on children, pregnant women and breast feeding mothers. The sensitization will target 500 household will be selected randomly from the 10 beneficiary communities. An average of 50 households will be reach per community.

The implementation team will be compose of 2 project directors and 5 field assistants. Expert and field extension workers will also be engage during the project implementation. A handbook will be developed for by the project directors to assist the field assistant and field extension workers to accurately deliver their training and education session in the field. The hand book is developed based on the availability of local food and the potential of the local people to improve and sustain balance diets for the household. The hand books will also help in educating the whole committee as it carries information on the important of a balance diet to their health, the different type of diet/recipe for sustaining the health of children, pregnant women and lactating mothers. This hand books will also be used as a tool for evaluating the outcome of the project.The first phase of the project will target 500 household as describe above.

Awareness raising and sensitization will be in the form of seminars and focus group discussion lasting for 5 days each per community. This will be followed by a second round of training on agricultural practices and entrepreneurship skills that will enable continuously support a balance diet for their households. Training will focus on the establishment of home gardens and farming techniques that accommodate mixed coping. Focus on home gardens will be on cultivation of protein-rich cereals to substitute the high intake of carbohydrate that is the custom of the community members. Two nurseries will be set up per village and use as the training site for the project. Beneficiary will be supported but technically and financially to set up their own respective home gardens. support will also cover the raring of live stock in a small scale. However, entrepreneurship training will be given to the beneficiary, to enable them to sustain the support received from the project.

Entrepreneurship training will focus on building skills on post-harvest processing of local food and on strategies on how to start and grow in a small scale business. This will ensure the sustainability of income for local people to maintain a healthy eating habit. Entrepreneurship training will be through workshop. Workshops will involve expert from the agriculture and nutrition field and will last for a week per community. The beneficiaries of the workshop will be supported with finances to set up a self-sustainable business, under the mentor-ship of the project directors. Project beneficiary will be trained as trainers of trainees and will be expected to have passed on the knowledge to at least two other persons before the end of the project.